I had so much fun~! Okay, well, the convention sucked for the most part, other than seeing StarKidPotter, and staying only a few rooms away from them. That's right, I kept running into the cast of a Very Potter Musical. <3~! Glad I only bought a one day ticket, but I hardly even needed that. Still, the rest of the weekend was a blast.
I headed down to Orlando on Wednesday, meeting up with our entire cast of 13 people for a late night dinner, then went seperate ways with my roomies.
We woke up early on Thursday morning, and threw on Tonks, Bellatrix, Lupin and Fleur to meet our friends, of which included :devravenspiritimage:. I think it's funny that our room was the room with all the adult characters. Fufufu. So we headed over to Epcot and Hollywood Studios for the day, took lots of funny pictures, then returned each to our own hotels to get ready for the premier of Deathly Hallows part 2 premier... Which we got to see at City Walk at Universal Studios. The place where every person was dying to be. I was dressed in Ministry Battle Tonks from Order of the Pheonix, complete with hair that constantly seemed to change colors. Unfortunately, they decided to go by assigned theatres this time, and our group was divided in two. I think with us we had Bellatrix, Hermoine, Harry, Ron, Draco, Ginny, Moaning Myrtle and three out-of-costume friends. Lupin was in another theater with Fleur, Snape, Death Eater, and three other uncostumed friends as well. Since we were let in two hours early, we got to meet and greet with so many people, all who seemed pretty impressed with our group in our variety of Ministry Battle, Yule ball, and Deathly Hallows wedding costumes - some even asked if we were actors they hired to promote the movie. It was all pretty flattering.
Eventually, we all settled down for the movie, being shown in 22 different rooms at the theater. The movie was absolutely heart wrenching, though funny at certain times. We laughed, we cried - and we rode that emotional roller coaster until the end. Though the movies have ended, our fandom will live on, most certainly. And though we were all terribly sad to see the movies end, we had a surprise on the way. Before the movie began we had been instructed to stick around until after the credits. Why was that, you say? Well because Universal Islands of Adventure was opening Wizarding World for FREE for anyone who attended the midnight premier. Yes, we were all going to Hogwarts at 2:30 in the morning! The excitement had our hearts racing - never before were you allowed to wear distinct costumes into the park without the threat of being turned away! This was a once in a life time experience for us, and by god, we were going to take advantage of it! We set up so many pictures for this - so much that we hardly did anything else at the park. But that was okay, we were going back on Friday anyway. Soon, we'll have pictures up - I can't even put the experience into appropriate words. I hope you all can understand.
We returned to the hotel for a few more hours rest around 5-6 am, before dragging ourselves out of bed around noon. This time Draco/Luna (:devRavenSpiritImage:) had stayed with us, so we threw on more costumes. This time, I believe it was Remus, Ron, Draco, Ginny and Bellatrix went normal. Though we vowed not to spend the entire time in Wizarding World, the weather had seperate plans for us as it rained for such a long time. We hit up Three Broomsticks for lunch, where Harry and Hermoine joined us, and our original Ron, Draco, and Bellatrix went to change into Fred, George, and Draco respectively. After several pictures and making people cry, Ron/Fred, Draco/Luna/George, Lupin and I moved in for our final costume change for the day, breaking out Padfoot, Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail in that order. The pictures we got also turned out pretty awesome - though I am not yet sure how they got me to cosplay Peter Pettigrew. It was so last minute, and very funny. I got to hang out with the cool kids! Once again, late at night, the 'adult's only' room headed back into retirement, because LeakyCon was next!
This was super early start for Saturday, because Starkid was performing at 10:30 am (though it got delayed after a painfully long opera). Still, the panel was amazing. Fleur, Bellatrix and I sat beside each other, singing along in all the AVPM and AVPS glory. My god, Starkidpotter was absolutely amazing, and so worth the tickets. Saturday was filled with so many costumes though! I had everything from Ministry Battle Tonks, MB promo pics Tonks, Half-Blood Prince Tonks, Rita Skeeter (I don't think I wore this), and Peter Pettigrew. Though each costume was popular in it's own way, there was a point where Fred, George, Lupin and I got dressed for our final costume... the Final Battle. We impromptly decided to dirty ourselves up for this, adding bruises and cuts all over. Hermoine also changed with us, and added her injuries. By the time was made it down to the ball, we looked absolutely terrible in the best of ways. At some point, Remus and I laid down beside each other, as well as Fred with his head on George's lap so that Fleur could take a picture. After a moment we were instructed to keep still because someone else wanted a picture. By the time we opened our eyes, there was a HUGE crowd surrounding us, with girls crying, and other people commenting on how our costumes were "too soon!" Oh my god, we got such a kick out of that! We got so many pictures, interviews, and various other people running up to us. We met amazing new friends, and beautiful cosplayers. It was a great, tearful ending to a once in a life time opportunity, and I couldn't have been with better people. Lucky me, I get to see them again in little over a month. I just hope that everything will be just as amazing as my experience with these lovely friends.
To my friends over at the O.W.L. Society (
www.facebook.com/groups/159349…), I hope you know how much I love and respect all of you. Thank you for inviting me into your close circle of friends, and for taking care of me as I explore a friendship I hope will continue to grow!
With so much love,
Sabrina